July – In Elmira, N.Y. sometime during the month, Sam wrote to Annie A. Fields.
Alas, and alas, we are packed for Italy, and all valued letters are packed and stored with the silver and hymn-books. There were not many, of course, we being near neighbors, and communicating mainly by mouth. I wish I would send you Warner’s Invocation on St. Valentine’s morning, beginning:
July – Review of Reviews (NY) published a portrait of Mark Twain, “From a photograph recently taken in Italy,” p. 122 [Tenney 39].
July 2 Wednesday – In York Harbor, Maine Sam wrote to Jules Eckert Goodman, who was seeking an extension for his play to include the next season. In a short paragraph Sam referred him to Elisabeth Marbury, who acted as Sam’s sole agent in matters dramatization [MTP].
Sam also wrote to a man identified only as Mr. Ar ——– , 122 Mansfield, Montreal, Canada: “I think that without doubt I did, but I don’t remember, now, what the word was” [MTP].
July 2 Thursday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y. Sam wrote two letters to daughter Clara, still in Riverdale. The first:
Clara dear, if you are sorry you neglected to offer a good-bye to Miss Sherry yesterday at the cars, write to your mother & say so, but don’t do it in such a way as to betray that you got a hint from here. Miss Sherry is hurt about something, & your mother thinks it was that. She feels sure it must have been that, & she is troubled about it.
July 2 Saturday – The Clemens party was en route in the Prince Oscar from Naples to New York.
Sam’s notebook: “In these 34 years we have made many voyages together, Livy dear—& now we are making our last; you down below & lonely; I above with the crowd & lonely” [MTB 1222; NB 47 TS 15].
July 20 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “I think Tabitha Greening’s pension ($10 a month) is paid, up to Sept. 1. Today sent $100 to Molly Clemens to pay it with, from Oct 1, to July 31, 1904” [NB 46 TS 22]. Note: Sam’s childhood friend, “Puss” Quarles (Tabitha Greening).
July 21 Sunday – In Saranac Lake, N.Y. Sam wrote to F.R. Underwood, about the circular to be used by R.G. Newbegin Co. in the sale of Sam’s Uniform Edition through American Publishing Co.
July 21 Tuesday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y. Sam wrote a letter of introduction for George Daulton to the following gentlemen: Richard Watson Gilder, Henry M. Alden, George B. Harvey, Samuel S. McClure, John Brisben Walker, Walter Hines Page, Edward W. Bok, and Robert J. Collier.
July 22 Monday – In Saranac Lake, N.Y., sometime during this week, the Clemenses had two visitors, John Howells, son of William Dean Howells, and Dr. Edward K. Root, one of their family doctors in Hartford days [July 28 to Twichell].
July 22 Wednesday – In Kittery Point, Maine William Dean Howells wrote to Sam, needling him about a book lent.
July 23 Wednesday – Frank Bliss wrote to Sam, that he had to come home (Hartford) “to attend to some matters, but I send this note to let you know that I got that option alright & will see you in course of a couple of days in regard to [it]” [MTP].
American Publishing Co. sent a draft to Livy for $7,364.36, which included $793.35 for sales of old edtions, $4,101.56 for Underwood sets edition, $2,500 colected on sales of “fine limited edtions”—all less $30.55 on books charged [MTP].
July 23 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Harper—note about Tom Sawyer renewal of copyright (completing it) Sent it to Robert Collier” [NB 46 TS 22].
July 24 Wednesday – G.&C. Merriam Co., Springfield, Mass. wrote to Sam:
We see that Mr. Winston Churchill in “The Crisis” states that a stateroom on a river boat derives its name from the fact that the first staterooms with wooden partitions instead of curtains were named after different states and that the texas was so called (after the annexation of Texas) as being a structure “annexed” to the states or staterooms.
July 24 Thursday – Frederick A. Duneka wrote to Sam, enclosing a check for $4,669.20 on the six-book set sold up to June 30, with projected $11,000 additional royalties due Dec. 31, making the total for 1902 of about $16,565.60 [MTP].
July 25 Friday – Livy wrote a short note to Frank Bliss: “The semi-yearly statement and the check for seventy three hundred and sixty four & 36/100 dollars is safely rec’d.Thank you for it” [MTP].
July 25 Saturday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y. Sam wrote to William Dean Howells.
July 26 Friday – Jean Clemens’ 21st birthday.
July 26 Saturday – Jean Clemens’ 22nd birthday.
July 26 Sunday – Jean Clemens’ 23rd birthday. Sam inscribed a copy of Antonio Fogazzaro’s Il Mestero del Poeta: “To Jean Clemens on a Birthday. July 26th, 1903” [MTP: Howard S. Mott Inc. catalog, No. 177, Item 72. Also, Gribben 235].
July 27 Sunday – In York Harbor, Maine Sam wrote to Paul Kester in Accotiuk, Va..
I will refer you to Mr. Erlanger and Miss Marbury. I have told Mr. [Abraham] Erlanger that I would not sanction a Tom Sawyer play until after the staging of Huck Finn (Nov. 2/02) & not then without talking with him about it first. I mention Miss Marbury because she is my agent, & such matters properly pass through her hands [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Klaw & Erlanger, dramatic agents.
July 27 Monday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y. Sam wrote to James Whitcomb Riley in Indianapolis, Ind. “The delightful book has arrived, & it is as you say on the fly-leaf:—in it I do find friends of Huck’s & Tom’s, ‘and pards of theirs of Long Ago.’ Thank you cordially, dear old friend, & may we yet meet again!” [MTP]. Note: likely The Book of Joyous Children (1902). The American Monthly Review of Reviews July 1902, Vol.
July 28 Sunday – In Saranac Lake, N.Y. Sam wrote to Joe Twichell. Sam opened with a short discussion of the impracticality of him appealing to President McKinley, whom he sarcastically referred to as “that fine ‘patriot’,” in the matter of abuses by missionaries to China.
July 28 Monday – In York Harbor, Maine Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
I’m enclosing the check but not the interest. I don’t ever pay interest until I have examined into a thing & ascertained whether there is a legal way of avoiding it or not. I have generally found this to be a good business method.
July 28 Tuesday – Daniel Willard Fiske wrote from Copenhagen to Sam after having rec’d Sam’s “note of the 14th, belated by its journey around by Florence.” Fiske answered Sam’s questions about the Villa Maiano and the Villa Papiniano, and of Fiske’s gout, which seemed to “thrive as well in the North as in the South” [MTP].
Check # Payee Amount [Notes]
894 Clara Clemens 1.42 Lincoln National Bank
July 29 Monday – In Saranac Lake, N.Y. Sam replied to Francis H. Skrine in London, who evidently had asked Sam to write a review of his new book, Life of Sir William Wilson Hunter (1901). Skrine’s incoming not extant. Skrine would present Sam with the published book (see Gribben p. 645 and Sam’s reactions in a letter to Skrine on Feb. 7, 1902).